Beholder Group - "Your greatest enemy is yourself!" - Session 19 - The Eye of Kronos

13th Feb 2020, 8:00 – 11:30pm

In-game timeline: Start of session, 1489DR, Eleasis 29th. End of session, Eleasis 29th

Our “Heroes” are halfway through the Gauntlet Run on Shadow Isle in an attempt to become part of the Radiant Sisters pirate gang, as the best option for escaping the isle. There may be other reasons for being on the island, but for some reason Drogan is keeping those reasons to himself.

After the BRAVERY room, where Drogan faced up to a Dragon Turtle, the group entered a room containing a pool of acid. Drogan was able to just about leap across the pool without getting wet and the group quickly worked out that they needed to somehow get a heavy anchor from one side of the pool to the other in order to open the door. Various methods were discussed to try to avoid any of them getting covered in acid. None worked perfectly, so the group opted for a method in which they ALL got covered in acid. Which I guess is fair. If a little wasteful. Dwarrow threw the anchor into the pool of acid. Drogan jumped in to fetch it, taking damage as he carried it to the other side. The other three then jumped across, taking damage dependent upon how far they managed to jump. A simplistic solution, but it worked, and they progressed.

Devon became concerned when he realised, with the TEAMWORK, BRAVERY and SACRIFICE rooms behind them, the next one was going to test INTELLIGENCE. He was right to be concerned.

The next door opened on a room covered with flagstones bearing numbers etched in them. And signs above each row of stones warning to BEWARE MAGIC! And a list of numbers and symbols. Between them, the party did recognise a few of the symbols as being those of different schools of magic. Hmmm. This room could benefit from some deep thinking and planning. Matching numbers to symbols, and working out what the symbols would be, and whether they translate to a magic school, and if so, what that school could be and what it might do and how to allow for the fact that every so often a stone rotates to reveal a different number……

And so Dwarrowsteel immediately walked onto a flagstone. And promptly got attacked by some stirges. So Alwaith decided to step on another flagstone with the same resultant symbol. And, funnily enough, promptly got attacked by some stirges. After clearing the stirges, with some help from Devon, the group decided to pause, and work out what was going on and plan a better way forward. Oops. No they didn’t. They just pressed on. Relatively randomly jumping on different stones to make their way across the room. They all took damage. Devon was convinced he was being stabbed by imaginary spears, Drogan had voices screaming at him in his head and Alwaith was slashed, and grappled, by some writhing vines that the flagstone transformed into, requiring Drogan to pull him away from them.

Eventually the whole group did make it to the other side, without any real planning and showing that INTELLIGENCE is not as required as it might be, so long as you are prepared to just take damage!

The group did manage to get through the ‘door with no handle or lock’ challenge quickly – they obviously did learn from their previous ‘push or pull’ door experiences!

Having succeeded, somehow, at all the pirate challenges, they are greeted by Pirate Captain Kraster, who congratulates them and leads them to a rest room where the group has an hour’s rest and fix-up. He then tells them that they are about to face their final challenge, and they need to say goodbye to their former lives. They are individually led to a small room containing only a chair and a mirror, where they are allowed to contemplate leaving their past selves, and possibly choose their own pirate names.

They are met on the other side by another pirate, named Grayburn, who leads them to some doors, telling them to prepare for their final challenge. The doors are opened, and then enter an arena, surrounded by  many cheering pirate spectators, as well as a few of the shark-headed ones.

Across from them some more doors open and they face….. themselves! Well, specifically, two Dwarrowsteels, a Drogan and a Devon. Which led to a little initial confusion. Let battle commence!

Both sides focussed on trying to bring down the healer – i.e. Dwarrowsteel. With two of them to choose from, it turned out that Drogan picked the correct one – the other one turned out to be Evil-Alwaith in disguise. Evil-Drogan suddenly appeared out of nowhere to smack Drogan around the head with his axe. Evil-Drogan obviously had Drogan-levels of planning, as he decided NOT to focus on the healer, but instead to trade blows with Drogan instead.

The battle was, unsurprisingly, evenly matched. Evil-Dwarrow healed himself, Dwarrow healed Drogan. The “Heroes” managed to get the upper hand with a critical hit, bringing Evil-Dwarrow down and removing the effects of his Bless spell. With the battle now swinging to the “Heroes” they pressed their advantage and ground the three remaining “Anti-Heroes” down, finally winning the battle after 8 hard-fought rounds. Some more healing was required, but not before Dwarrow stabilised Evil-Drogan – seconds before Drogan chopped off his head. As each of the “Anti-Heroes” finally expired, their bodies seemed to fade and disappear into the ether.

The crowd cheered, the party basked in adoration. Only one of them, Devon, paid any attention to what was going on in the crowd – he spotted three not-overly-attractive women (won't stop Drogan from attempting to kop off with them though!) rising from makeshift thrones, surrounded by shark-people. These may be the original Radiant Sisters, perhaps?

They are greeted by another pirate, named Brighton, who, it turns out, was a former shipmate of Drogan’s. When he gets them away from the crowds, he explains that he hasn’t got long before The Baron will come in to test their commitment to becoming pirates. He has 3 potions that can help them convince The Baron of their intentions – Alwaith decides to rely on his natural deception allowing the others to take a potion each to aid their lies. The Baron enters – he turns out to be a large sahuagin who had no appreciation for Drogan’s jokes. So just like everyone else then. With the help of the potions, and some poor insight from The Baron, the whole party just about manages to convince him that they were committed to becoming pirates. The Baron left, leaving the group with Brighton.

And so we leave our “Heroes”, full of questions about this island and its inhabitants, but with a potential ally who may be able to answer some of their questions and to aid them on whatever quest they may think they are on!